This website serves as an archive for the 2011 Texas Longhorns Women’s Soccer season. It was my great joy to write about the Texas Women’s Soccer team during the 2011 season. I put as much energy and time as I could into following and writing about the team. Please find lots of photographs and articles from the 2011 season here.

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Kylie Doniak is in criticial condition in the hospital after being hit by a drunk driver on Thursday night near 6th Street in Austin. She was out with friends when she was hit by a drunk driver who also tried to flee the scene after the incident. A motorcyclist witnessed the accident, then chased the driver down and apprehended him, tying him up until police arrived.

Kylie has sustained multiple injuries including several broken bones. She has a broken leg, broken ribs, and a broken collar bone among other very serious injuries. Doctors are most concerned about brain swelling and are currently keeping her in a medically induced coma.

Saturday update: As of this evening, Kylie is still in a medically induced coma. The main concern for doctors is still controlling the brain swelling. Kylie’s bodily injuries include a broken arm, broken leg, broken ribs, broken collar bone, as well as a punctured lung. Please keep Kylie in your prayers. She is a fighter and needs every ounce of support we can send her. Please keep praying for Kylie’s recovery!

“Make no mistake, though, this is a major gamble from an athletic department who has seen their two previous hires underwhelm as the Longhorns played second fiddle to Texas A&M in the state for much of the past decade and a half.”

• As of Wednesday (Dec. 21st) there are now 23 comments47 comments there on Chris Henderson’s article.

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(This article was originally titled “Waiting For Godot“.While the title was changed to something more normal,
Godot’s imminent arrival has been delayed.)

Word in Austin is that an announcement is expected either Wednesday or Thursday from Chris Plonsky regarding the new women’s soccer coach at Texas. Angela Kelly is expected to be named as the new head coach of the program.

Kelly, a graduate of North Carolina, recently completed her 12th season as the head coach of the University of Tennessee women’s soccer program. She has a 64% winning percentage during her tenure at Tennessee, the same winning percentage as Chris Petrucelli in his time at Texas.

Kelly graduated from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 1994 and served as an assistant coach at North Carolina in 1995 before moving to Knoxville to become an assistant soccer coach at the University of Tennessee. Kelly served in that role for four seasons before becoming the head coach at Tennessee in 2000.

In Kelly’s four seasons as a player at North Carolina (1991-1994), the Tar Heels were at the tail end of their nine consecutive National Championships. Carolina won their 12th overall NCAA Women’s Soccer National Championship in Kelly’s senior year.

Two weeks ago when it was announced that Chris Petrucelli’s contract had not been renewed with Texas, speculation swirled that Randy Waldrum was the likeliest candidate to become the next soccer coach at Texas. This speculation did not pan out, though.

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Time to meet your Women’s Athletic Director:

The dynamic Chris Plonsky

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There’s a lot of speculation going around about who the next head coach of Texas Soccer might be. But really what’s the point in getting into it? We’ll all find out when we find out. The announcement will come from Chris Plonsky in the Texas Athletics Department.

If I were to make a guess on a time frame, I’d imagine we’re not going to hear anything until after Christmas. The general timeline brought up at the mandatory team meeting on December 3rd was “two to three weeks”. Two weeks would be December 17th. Three weeks would be December 24th.

Maybe we hear before Christmas, but ultimately who knows. I’ve been told the search is well underway but hard to read an announcement date into that.

Some folks have said it’s essential that we have a new coach right away. Really? Why? Are our potential recruits going to walk away from Texas during the holidays? Doubtful. Yes, I do imagine it’s important to have someone out there recruiting all the time, but let’s give Chris Plonsky lots of space to find the right coach for Texas. The Longhorns have only had two coaches in the 18 year history of Texas Soccer. Our most recent coach had a tenure of 13 years. Clearly picking a soccer coach is a pretty sticky decision. Whoever the next one is, he or she will be with us for a good while. Probably not that important to jump into ten plus year relationship in order to have someone out there recruiting over the holidays. … Have you got your holiday shopping done? I still have a ways to go, but I’m giving my parents a copy of theThe Searchers.

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To take your mind off the coaching search, here’s some trivia from the movieThe Searchers

• Released in 1956, The Searchers was a western directed by the great John Ford. It was set in the time of the Texas Indian Wars and starred John Wayne.

• Wayne’s favorite role of all time was playing the character Ethan Edwards. He liked the character so much he named his third son Ethan.

• In the climactic scene, John Wayne and Natalie Wood run up the side of a hill in Monument Valley, Utah. They come down the other side of the hill in the Bronson Canyon area of Griffith Park, Los Angeles. (from IMDB.com)

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At a team meeting on Saturday morning in Austin, Texas Women’s Athletic Director, Chris Plonsky, informed team members that Texas’ contract with Head Coach Chris Petrucelli would not be renewed. As of Saturday, Chris Petrucelli is no longer the coach of Texas Soccer. In addition, Assistant Coaches Sarah Barnes and Kat Mertz have also been let go.

During Petrucelli’s tenure in Austin, the Longhorns went 165-88-26 with a winning percentage of 64%.

Texas now faces the task of selecting a new head coach to lead the soccer program. It is expected that the team will be without a head coach for a few weeks as the process takes its course.

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Thank you to everyone who took the time to follow this site over the course of the season. I enjoyed writing the articles as well as collecting as many photos as I could. Although I won’t be able to contribute as much going forward, I’ll be looking for Texas journalism students this offseason who’d like to continue the site. Congrats to the Longhorns for playing so hard under very difficult circumstances this year with so many injuries to teammates. I thought the hard-fought battle against Oklahoma State in the Big 12 Semifinals was one of the team’s finest moments. It was my privilege to be able to write about the team this year. Best of luck to everyone going forward! And Hook ‘Em! – Bobby